Miniature Painting Cost Calculator

How Much Does It Cost to Start Miniature Painting?

Build your starter kit line by line, at budget or premium prices, and see what you would actually pay before you buy anything. Every price on this page is a field you can edit, because your local shop is not my local shop. From one mini painter to another.

  • Itemized up-front total, not a vague range
  • Running cost per model for paint, primer and basing
  • Runs entirely in your browser — nothing you type is uploaded or saved
Pick a tier

Switching tier reloads the starter prices. Any price you edited by hand goes back to the tier default.

Used to spread the one-time gear cost across the models you actually finish.

Totals also refresh as you edit the list, once the form is valid.

Your supply list

Uncheck anything you already own. Quantities are yours to change too — two pots of your main color is a real answer.

Brushes

Two or three brushes, not a 20-piece set.

  • A size 1 or 2 base brush, a size 0, and a cheap drybrush. Synthetic is fine.

    One-time gear

    $12.00

  • One fine sable or good synthetic for eyes, straps, and edges.

    One-time gear

    $6.00

  • The single cheapest way to make brushes last years instead of months.

    One-time gear

    $5.00

Paints

A starter set plus a wash and a texture paint covers most first models.

  • 10–16 acrylics with a black, a white, and a few skin and metal-adjacent tones.

    Covers about 20 models≈ $1.25 per model

    $25.00

  • One brown or black wash does more for a first model than any other single pot.

    Covers about 25 models≈ $0.20 per model

    $5.00

  • Optional — many starter sets already include a silver and a gold.

    Covers about 20 models

    $0.00

  • Sand or mud texture that turns a painted figure into a finished base.

    Covers about 25 models≈ $0.28 per model

    $7.00

Primer & varnish

Something to prime with, and something to seal the finished paint.

  • Gray or black rattle-can. One can primes a lot of models.

    Covers about 15 models≈ $0.80 per model

    $12.00

  • Optional alternative when you cannot spray outdoors or the weather will not cooperate.

    Covers about 15 models

    $0.00

  • Protects paint from fingers and table edges. Matters if the models get played with.

    Covers about 20 models≈ $0.45 per model

    $9.00

Tools & workspace

Clippers, a knife, a palette, and something to protect the table.

  • For clipping parts off the sprue without chewing up the plastic.

    One-time gear

    $8.00

  • Mold line scraping and the occasional gap fix. Buy spare blades.

    One-time gear

    $6.00

  • Cleans up what the knife leaves behind, especially on resin.

    One-time gear

    $5.00

  • A wet palette if you can, a ceramic tile or plastic lid if you cannot.

    One-time gear

    $8.00

  • Saves the desk and stops blades from rolling off onto the floor.

    One-time gear

    $9.00

  • Plastic cement for kits, super glue for everything else.

    One-time gear

    $5.00

  • Optional if you already have decent lighting. Bad light hides every mistake you make.

    One-time gear

    $0.00

  • The unglamorous half of the hobby. A jam jar works fine.

    One-time gear

    $4.00

Models to paint

Practice pieces first — cheap ones you are not afraid to ruin.

  • Cheap figures you are willing to ruin. Ruining them is the point.

    One-time gear

    $15.00

  • Optional — only if you already know what game or army you are painting.

    One-time gear

    $0.00

How this calculator works

  1. Pick a tier. Budget is the cheapest gear I would still buy myself. Premium swaps in the nicer version of the same list.
  2. Uncheck what you own. Clippers, a desk lamp, a jam jar, a ceramic tile — lots of this is already in the house.
  3. Edit any price. The numbers start at typical US hobby retail, but you own them. Put in what you are actually quoted.
  4. Read three totals. The up-front total is what you pay today. The per-model figure is paint, primer and basing spread across the models each purchase covers. The all-in figure also spreads the one-time gear across the models you plan to paint.

Nothing here is a quote and nothing is sent anywhere. The whole calculation runs in your browser, so you can type in silly numbers, think about it, and reload the page to start over.

A real example, with the default list

Leave every option at its default and this is what the two tiers come to for 10 models:

LineBudgetPremium
Up-front total$141.00$367.00
Per model (paint & primer)$2.98$6.62
All-in per model$11.28$30.32
Items included1616

The gap between the columns is mostly brushes, a lamp and a wet palette — the gear you keep for years. The paint itself barely moves.

What this estimate leaves out

  • Shipping, tax and any import fees.
  • An airbrush and compressor — the biggest optional spend in the hobby, and not a beginner requirement.
  • Terrain, dice, rulebooks and storage cases, unless you add them as extra lines yourself.
  • Replacement paint after the first set runs dry. The per-model figure covers that habit, roughly.
  • Your time, which is the one part of this hobby that is actually free.

Questions I get about the cost

How much does it cost to start miniature painting?

Most beginners land between the budget and premium columns above, and the biggest swing comes from optional gear rather than paint. What you actually pay depends on what you already own — a desk lamp, a jam jar and a pair of side cutters are often already in the house. Uncheck anything you have and the total follows.

Do I need an airbrush to start painting miniatures?

No. An airbrush and compressor are the single biggest optional purchase in the hobby, which is why they are not on this list at all. Learn to thin paint and control a brush first. An airbrush saves time on large models, not on your first ten.

Can I use cheap craft-store acrylic paint on miniatures?

You can, and plenty of people do. Hobby acrylics are ground finer and thin more predictably, which matters on small details. If money is tight, a small hobby starter set plus a cheap craft bottle for terrain and bases is a better split than a giant craft paint set.

How long does one starter paint set last?

The per-model figure above assumes roughly twenty models per starter paint set and about twenty-five per wash or texture pot. That is a rule of thumb, not a measurement. If you paint a whole army in one colour, the pots you lean on will run out sooner.

Are the prices on this page accurate?

They are starting estimates in US dollars for typical hobby retail, not quotes, and they will go stale. Every price is an editable field for exactly that reason: type in what you are actually being charged and the totals follow.

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